“Observe and Participate”: Jesús Colón, the New York Young Lords, and the Tradition of Afro-Puerto Rican Socialist Life Writing

• In Event: This is America: Re-creating Afro-Diasporic Contemporary Literary and Cultural Discourses

Abstract

The phrase “observation and participation” comes from Cha-Cha Jiménez, the founder of the Young Lords Organization (YLO) in Chicago and was used to describe the YLO’s model of community recruitment. In this paper, I argue that the “observe and participate” model was also the guiding structure of a tradition of Afro-Puerto Rican socialist life writing, spanning from the 1930s through the early 1970s. I examine the autobiographical “sketches” of Jesús Colón and collaborative life writing of the New York Young Lords Party (1969-72), epitomized through their 1971 autobiography. In the Young Lords’ Palante: Young Lords Party (1971/2011), with photographs by Michael Abramson, the organization incorporates several genres (poetry, essay, photography) to promote the multiple identities of its members: Afro-Latinos/as, anti-racist feminists, and decolonial activists. Similarly, Jesús Colón’s sketches focus on his own experiences and those of his community. A Puerto Rican in New York (1961) acts as a multi-faceted collective portrait of the Puerto Rican community, rather than a straightforward autobiography. “Observe and participate” life writing privileges the community over the individual to represent a variety of Afro-Latinidades. Through their innovative writing and revolutionary acts, Colón and the Young Lords contribute to literary studies as well as the history of radical Puerto Rican political and social movements.

Author

• Regina Mills, Texas A/M University